Secret Contest

"Are those annoying bugs back again? What is wrong with the people outside? When Grandpa comes back, I'm definitely going to tell him about this. These annoying mosquitoes are driving me crazy!"

Dugu Yan opened her eyes and looked at Chen Ming's distant figure, her gaze filled with irritation.

She had been quite happy when she first entered Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Ever since childhood, she had never had friends her own age to play with. Other than her grandfather, the only things she dealt with on a daily basis were all manner of poisons.

Even when she went out, she had to be followed by a whole crowd of people. Being told she could not do this or that had made her extremely unhappy.

She had thought that entering Heaven Dou Royal Academy would bring her some good days, but instead, a large group of people with ulterior motives immediately surrounded her. They buzzed in her ears like flies, yet acted as though they were wonderful.

Dugu Yan only felt disgusted. Utterly disgusted.

Had she known the academy would be like this, she felt she might as well have obediently stayed by her grandfather's side.

If her grandfather had not vanished somewhere recently due to his cultivation, Dugu Yan would have long since gone to complain to him.

"Let's teach him a lesson... Isn't getting poisoned perfectly normal here?"

Dugu Yan quietly released her Martial Soul. Two yellow Soul Rings appeared beside her. Carefully suppressing both her Soul Power and her presence, she secretly used her First Soul Skill.

"First Soul Skill—Jade Scale Red Poison!"

Jade Scale Red Poison was an excitatory poison. When used beneficially, it could put someone into an excited state for a short time, slightly improving their physical abilities and filling them with energy. But if used excessively, it would plunge a person into abnormal excitement, causing hallucinations, visual distortions, bodily convulsions, and loss of control.

Dugu Yan had only recently left her grandfather's side. Though she had been annoyed to death, she still held back somewhat. This amount of red poison would at most make someone uncomfortable for a while before naturally dissipating, leaving no aftereffects. She was still far from the person she would become in the original story, someone who would poison anyone who offended her half to death.

However, while Dugu Yan believed she had concealed herself well, Chen Ming had completely detected her the moment she unleashed her Soul Skill.

Feeling the poison drifting slowly toward him through the air, Chen Ming crooked his lips into a smile and summoned his Martial Soul.

One yellow and one purple Soul Ring floated beside him. As Soul Power spread outward, a cloud of emerald-green poisonous mist appeared around him.

He stood there without moving, allowing Dugu Yan's Jade Scale Red Poison to drift toward him before it was effortlessly swallowed by the green poisonous mist around him, which looked more like a visual effect than anything else.

"Huh, I poisoned the wrong person. You really are a poison-attribute Soul Master?"

Seeing Chen Ming in his Martial Soul Possession state, Dugu Yan stopped hiding in the corner and simply leaped out. She studied him up and down with curious eyes. When she noticed the purple Second Soul Ring on his body, her eyes shone with interest.

"Who are you? A poison-attribute Soul Master who just enrolled? What's your name? Why is your second Soul Ring purple?"

Although she was already fifteen and had developed a full, mature figure, coupled with her Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul, making her seem like a seductive older beauty, Dugu Yan had rarely interacted with outsiders. She was still as curious as a child, her heart filled with questions.

"Before asking someone else's name, shouldn't you introduce yourself first? That's basic courtesy, isn't it?"

Chen Ming flicked his tail and asked in return.

"My name is Dugu Yan. I'm fifteen years old, my Martial Soul is the Jade Phosphorous Serpent, and I'm a level twenty-nine Control System Soul Grandmaster. Your turn."

As someone knowledgeable about poison attributes, Dugu Yan might have been far inferior to Dugu Bo, but she remembered knowledge about poison-attribute soul beasts very well.

The moment she saw the number of segments on the scorpion tail swaying behind Chen Ming, Dugu Yan immediately recognized that the Soul Master before her, who looked one or two years younger than she was, possessed a Jade Scorpion King Martial Soul that was extremely close to the level of her grandfather's Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul.

Fourteen tail segments—only one segment short of becoming a true Scorpion Emperor. It had already come infinitely close to the Emperor level, far surpassing her Jade Phosphorous Serpent.

"My name is Chen Ming. I'm eleven years old, a level twenty-three Control System Soul Grandmaster, and my Martial Soul is the Jade Scorpion King."

"Eleven years old, level twenty-three, a thousand-year second Soul Ring, and a Jade Scorpion King Martial Soul infinitely close to the Emperor level."

Even Dugu Yan, who considered herself well-traveled and knowledgeable from following her grandfather, was startled upon hearing Chen Ming's introduction.

Dugu Yan believed that she had decent talent and hoped to inherit her grandfather's mantle one day, becoming the new generation's Poison Douluo and continuing the Jade Phosphorous Serpent lineage's prestige. Yet as she looked at Chen Ming, she still felt as if he had overshadowed her.

Her poison from earlier had clearly only been a warning and posed no threat whatsoever to a true poison-attribute Soul Master. Yet feeling the faint pressure coming from her Martial Soul, Dugu Yan became somewhat excited.

"You're a poison-attribute Soul Master too. How about we compare our poison techniques?"

"Sorry, maybe later." Chen Ming looked Dugu Yan up and down, pausing slightly when he saw her emerald-green hair and eyes.

"My poison is too potent for ordinary people to withstand. If something happens, it'll be difficult to handle, so the three Education Committee Members told me not to use poison on fellow students at the academy unless necessary."

"Too potent? Don't act rashly? The three Education Committee Members told me the same thing."

It would have been better if Chen Ming had not mentioned it, but once he did, Dugu Yan proudly puffed out her chest. At the same time, she became even more curious about him.

"We can compare right here. No one will know. Besides, I'm also curious about the Bilin Scorpion, which is one of the Bilin Five Poisons alongside my Jade Phosphorous Serpent. Don't you want to see the Jade Phosphorous Serpent's poison?"

"What's so interesting about Jade Phosphorous Serpent poison? When I first awakened my Martial Soul, I used to play with snakes in the training grounds. Nothing ever happened."

"You..." Dugu Yan became somewhat angry, but could not really say anything. She could only sit off to the side with puffed cheeks. On the surface, she pretended to cultivate, but in reality, she scattered her poison along the path ahead of Chen Ming.

Seeing her childish sulking, Chen Ming smiled. Maintaining his Martial Soul Possession state, he walked directly toward the poison Dugu Yan had left behind.

Dugu Yan slightly opened her eyes to peek, only to discover that her poison seemed to have no effect at all.

It was not merely that he had effortlessly neutralized it—her poison could not even break through the Poison Attribute Soul Power wrapped around Chen Ming's body.

Chen Ming wrapped his body in Soul Power and simply walked through it. Not even his clothes or the soles of his shoes were corroded in the slightest.